Medical device failures should be reported

5th January 2011

Concern has been raised that healthcare professionals are failing to report problems with medical devices and products and that this could get worse as a result of NHS restructuring.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has reported that last year it saw a 13% increase in adverse incident reports about medical devices to over 10,000. The MHRA is also concerned that as the NHS prepares for another restructuring the work of Medical Device Liaison Officers and all other health and social care professionals to ensure that medical device related adverse incidents are reported promptly could suffer.